The Power Of 0.0002424%
By Graham Davies

It’s always the turd in the punch-bowl that attracts the most attention.

Barack Obama’s presentation of his 825 billion dollar regeneration package was excellent. Apart from the horrible thing he plopped in the middle.

Apparently, he wanted to spend 200 million dollars on refurbishing the 146 acre National Mall. (0.0002424% of the entire budget). That’s $1,369,863 per acre. Or maybe, sufficient to pay 5,000 gardeners $40,000 each to work on it for a year, seeding it with a strain of grass made of pure gold.

It’s the kind of idea that really winds up your average Republican (alongside free contraception). So no matter how wise any of the bill’s other provisions, they weren’t going to have it.

A load of grass is not a credit crunch priority. Unless it's the kind you can smoke. Then at least people could have a good laugh at Obama’s first really big presentational mistake.